The PGCE is not an easy year. Put another way, the PGCE year is a hard, very intensive course bringing together academic and professional requirements, and actually working on the job while you're learning it too. That said, it is often one of the most rewarding years of many trainees' lives, meeting friends who last beyond the course, learning lots of new skills and finding out that they have a job that they love.

How you survive the year is down to you, but to give you some pointers as to how best to survive it, I've put together some 'top tips', if you like, of what to do and what not to do. Here they are:

1. Professionalism – yours - is key to the course. It is expected of you right from the very first in university, and from the moment you walk into school for you first practice. It is an innate quality that you need to get used to having and being. It is pivotal in everything you are and do:

• In your knowledge and understanding

- what you know

• In your practice

- what you do

• In your values and development

- what you are

Get used to being a professional and it being expected of you. This is not so hard for mature students who have worked in industry or elsewhere, but it's not so easy for recently qualified graduates coming straight from university to the PGCE. If you're unsure, talk to your older peers and tutors, and your mentor, and get them to guide you.

2. The academic side is not necessarily going to be a breeze. You may have sailed through your university degree, but the chances are that the assignments for your PGCE (particularly if they are at M level) are going to be challenging to say the least. This is generally more so for undergraduates who have come from technical degrees and are not used to writing lengthy essays or reports. Universities are good at providing help with academic writing and reading skills – use them!

I would also recommend getting an assignment 'buddy' that you can trust to read your work and proof it for you before you hand in. In practical terms, if you stick to the assignment requirements you can't (famous last words...?) go wrong. If in doubt, ASK! Better to get help and pass than stay quiet and fail.

3. The standards. Don't we all go on about them: tutors, mentors, anyone else that observes you, and so on. With these my best advice is to start early. Use your university work as a 'dummy run' for your filing system.

One of the easiest ways is to get some lever arch files and enough tabs for one for each standard. Then label them up and start filing your work in the sections appropriately. As time goes on you will gather more and more stuff to file so best to keep this as a regular exercise. Those who haven't have had to spend whole weekends (I kid you not) just catching up on this so that their mentor can check it for them. Better to present your mentor with an organised system that is regularly updated, on a weekly basis, than a mess at the end of a placement!

4. Your teaching practice. Don't forget that this is teacher 'training' not teacher perfect. You are not expected to go in on day one of your first teaching practice and just be able to do it. Honest! You will be expected to be prepared, be hard working and learn from your mistakes, accept feedback with good grace and learn from it, and improve as you go along. It takes time and practice, and you need to get a feel for how you are as a teacher, and how you want to be as time goes on. All classes are different and even the same ones can be very different on different days and for different teachers – get out there and observe as much as you can – lots of different subjects.

And get out there and do as much as you can in the school – be part of it in other ways beyond your subject, coach rugby, go on the history trips, sing in the carol service, run a gaming club and so on. It helps you as a teacher for your pupils to see you as something other than the subject teacher that you are.

5. And finally, some more practical tips that I think are useful during the PGCE year... get a thick skin, buy loads of stationery, be organised, time planning is key, get a BAFTA for when you stand up in front of them, acquire nerves of steel, be creative and flexible (you never need plan B until you fail to prepare one!) and learn to think on your feet.

6. But most of all, don't give up all of your life. You need a balance. Take time out to do other things, time for yourself and friends and family – it really makes a difference to how you survive this year.

Teaching resources on Guardian Teacher Network

Coping with bad behaviour is one of the things that causes many PGCE students concern. But there are some fabulous tips to be had here. Rob Salter has created a wealth of resources to help new teachers in class and also looks at how Neuro-linguistic Programming can help.

Some more top tips on how to manage behaviour positively is available here from Pivotal Education's behaviour guru Paul Dix.

For a quick, simple but really handy way of choosing a student in class take a look at this resource created by English teacher Charlotte Rashford. It's ideal for any teaching practice.

• Dr Alison Hramiak is a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, and is a Course Tutor for the ICT PGCE. She also teaches on a number of CPD programmes at Masters level and above and also on the EdD programme at the university.